ABSTRACT
During World War One, the collective response of German deserters to danger, hunger, fear of punishment, or war weariness was shaped more by their war time experiences than by ideology or party. In 1918, despite the intensely personal motives for their actions, they were driven collectively into headlong conflict with a defeated ruling class over the future of the German state. This chapter examines those experiences, assesses the scale of desertion, its impact on the war effort and records the part played by deserters in the revolution that followed. The concept 'desertion' is based upon the Kaiser's amnesty decree for peace-time deserters in August 1914. The revolutionary disbandment of the German army by its own soldiers influenced the course of the strategic struggle in the west. British political leaders called suddenly for a halt to their efforts to destroy Germany's military strength entirely. Leaderless, the rebellious soldiers' movement turned into the largest demobilization mutiny on record.
